The Fact
Peer-reviewed reviews of prescription-drug promotion identify the United States and New Zealand as the only countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
What This Means
The American public experiences a medical-information environment that is unusual internationally. Prescription drugs are marketed directly to ordinary people as consumer products in a way that most countries do not permit.
Sources
- Association Between Drug Characteristics and Manufacturer Spending on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising. JAMA Network Open. 2023; and related peer-reviewed reviews of direct-to-consumer prescription-drug advertising.
- DATA CONTEXT: Current policy environment described in peer-reviewed literature